Eco Airstream On The Green Road

Cece Reinhardt and Brenda Daugherty decided to renovate a 2003 Airstream Safari with eco-friendly materials and convert their used diesel truck to a veggie oil machine to get “On the Green Road” in style. They enlisted sponsors and finished the conversion and renovation. They also embarked on a mission to get rid of everything that they don’t need or use, and will show people how they’re living off the grid.

The truck is powered by waste oil, while the Airstream is powered by solar panels. The 25-foot Airstream also has rain water collection and a composting toilet.

What about all of the items that were in the trailer and removed to make it “green”? Isn’t the greenest way to us and reuse something existing vs. taking a usable item, gutting it, throwing away the contents and replacing with new?

agreed, I can’t imagine they were able to repurpose/recycle all the materials that were removed. In my opinion – this seems extremely wasteful. I can see one or two changes, but to this extent to claim “green” really isn’t green at all.

Hey there – You are bringing up great questions about what happened to the things we removed. It wasn’t covered in this article but we do cover it on our site. We kept many of the existing systems and furniture. All the original appliances remain (stove, fridge, water heater, etc) except for the microwave which went to another RVer. The cabinets are original but with a re-surfacing and the couch is the original couch with new upholstery. Things we did remove like the dinette, curtains, room divider, etc either went to other RVers or were donated. Part of this process was to focus on how to be sustainable and accountable for our choices along the way and this did mean making sure stuff didn’t go in the landfill. There was carpet on the floor and up the side of the walls and this was pretty dirty and toxic in our opinion. That we disposed of. This process for us was also a personal journey to live on less and live more purposefully and that journey is just beginning and will continue for many years to come.

thanks for the answers, i was also wondering because the article didn’t state how you arrived with the RV and what condition it was in when you got it. The usable life of a lot of cheap RV parts can be very short but I know that is not so with many of the Airstream parts and after seeing your post I also realized how many people are renovating their old Airstreams so that there must be quite a bit of demand for any Airstream specific parts. Cool deal & awesome remodel.

i would discard the old stuff cuz they may be made of partilce board which is toxic! I would replace with custom foamboard with eighth inch ply to keep it light on the load to get more mileage(thats green way to go!) Is that a foldout sofa u got there?

How does the American Clay hold up? Does the unit primarily stay stationary or is there some travel time? I’m in the midst of a “tinyhouse” build and am trying to figure what to use on the walls. Thanks

We have driven a few hundred miles so far and will be driving many miles each year to travel and do open houses. Our American Clay installer also has an Airstream with American Clay in it and he has a bit over 2,000 miles. With his guidance, the elasticity in the clay and our prep work on the walls it should hold up well. Our Videos page has info. on our prep work – http://greenrvlife.com/videos/